A/60/PV.80 General Assembly
It was so decided.
This information will be reflected in document A/60/650/Add.10, to be issued tomorrow morning.
112. Elections to fill vacancies in subsidiary organs and other elections (e) Election of 47 members of the Human Rights Council The President: The General Assembly will now take up agenda item 112 (e) for the election of 47 members of the Human Rights Council, under the terms of reference as outlined in resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006. By adopting resolution 60/251 on 15 March, the General Assembly established the Human Rights Council and, by that, further strengthened the United Nations human rights machinery, as mandated by the 2005 world summit outcome. The members of the Assembly agreed to start a new era in the United Nations endeavours to promote and protect human rights. By creating the Human Rights Council as a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly, they also decided to elevate the institutional standing of the work on human rights. It is now time to implement that historic achievement. We are here today to elect the first members of the Human Rights Council. The first 47 members will play a crucial role, since they will operationalize and take the first decisions of the Council. I am confident that our colleagues in Geneva will continue to bring the process forward once the members of the Council are elected. It is important that the Council get off to a good start on 19 June. I am encouraged that, from the start, member States have been guided by the letter and by the spirit of the resolution. The fact that all candidates for election have presented pledges and commitments, in accordance with the resolution, is indeed very encouraging. Those pledges and commitments have been circulated as official documents and posted on the United Nations website to assist members in the election. I wish to recall that, in accordance with resolution 60/251, when electing members of the Council, member States shall take into account the contributions of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights and their voluntary pledges and commitments made thereto. We will now proceed to the election, the largest ever conducted in the General Assembly. In connection with this election, a note by the Secretariat has been circulated under the symbol A/INF/60/6. In accordance with resolution 60/251, the 47 seats shall be distributed among the regional groups as follows: 13 seats for the African Group, 13 seats for the Asian Group, 6 seats for the Eastern European Group, 8 seats for the Latin American and Caribbean Group, and 7 seats for the Western European and other Group. The Assembly further decided that membership in the Council shall be open to all States Members of the United Nations. In accordance with resolution 60/251, members of the Council shall serve for a period of three years and shall not be eligible for immediate re-election after two consecutive terms. It is further decided that the terms of membership shall be staggered and that such decision will be taken for the first election by the drawing of lots, taking into consideration equitable geographical distribution. Members will recall that in A/INF/60/6 there is a table showing the staggering of terms of the members of each regional group, formulated in line with past practice. May I take it that it is the wish of the General Assembly to approve the staggering of terms of the members of each regional group, as set out in that table?
It was so decided.
Before proceeding further, I wish to inform members that we shall first elect the 47 members of the Human Rights Council. Immediately after the elections are completed, the Assembly will hold the drawing of lots to select from among the members already elected in each regional group those members who will serve for one year, two years and three years, respectively.
The General Assembly will now proceed to the election of the 47 members of the Human Rights Council. In accordance with resolution 60/251, the 47 Member States shall be elected directly and individually by secret ballot by the majority of the members of the General Assembly. Accordingly, for the present election, 96 votes constitute a majority in the
General Assembly, which has a membership of 191 Member States.
The election will be held in accordance with the relevant rules of procedure of the General Assembly on elections. For this election, rules 92 and 94 of the Assembly’s rules of procedure shall be applied. Consistent with the Assembly’s practice, if more than the required number of Member States have obtained the votes of the majority of the Assembly members on the same ballot, those Member States that have obtained the largest number of votes above the required majority will be considered as elected, up to the number of seats to be filled.
Also consistent with past practice, in the case of a tie vote for a remaining seat, there will be a special, restricted ballot limited to those candidates that have obtained an equal number of votes.
May I take it that the Assembly agrees to these procedures?
It was so decided.
Accordingly, the elections shall be held by secret ballot, and there shall be no nominations.
Again, I wish to repeat that the 47 seats are distributed among the regional groups as follows: 13 seats for African Group, 13 seats for the Asian group, 6 seats for the Eastern European Group, 8 seats for the Latin American and Caribbean Group, and 7 seats for the Western European and other Group. The ballot papers reflect this pattern.
As stated in resolution 60/251, when electing members of the Council, Member States shall take into account the contribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights and their voluntary pledges and commitments made thereto.
Before we begin the voting process I should like to remind members that, pursuant to rule 88 of the Assembly’s rules of procedure, no representative shall interrupt the voting except on a point of order on the actual conduct of the voting.
We shall now begin the voting process. Ballot papers marked A, B, C, D and E will now be distributed. Ballot A has 13 blank lines for the 13 seats for the African Group; Ballot B has 13 blank lines for the 13 seats for the Asian Group; Ballot C has 6 blank lines for the 6 seats for the Eastern European Group;
Ballot D has 8 blank lines for the 8 seats for the Latin American and Caribbean Group; and Ballot E has 7 blank lines for the 7 seats for the Western European and other Group.
I request representatives to use only those ballot papers and to write on them the names of the States for which they wish to vote. A ballot paper containing more names from the relevant region than the number of seats assigned to it will be declared invalid. I repeat, a ballot paper containing more names from the relevant region than the number of seats assigned to it will be declared invalid. If a ballot paper contains names of Member States that do not belong to that region, those names will not be counted at all.
I will now pause for the distribution of ballot papers and for the writing of 47 names.
At the invitation of the President, Ms. Nadjaf (Afghanistan), Ms. Burnell (Australia), Ms. Fedorovich (Belarus), Mr. Sepúlveda (Chile), Mr. Nsemi (Congo), Ms. Ioannu (Cyprus), Ms. Romulus (Haiti), Mr. Issetov (Kazakhstan), Ms. Rahantabololo (Madagascar) and Ms. Field (United States of America) acted as tellers.
A vote was taken by secret ballot.
The meeting was suspended at 10.55 a.m. and resumed at 1.10 p.m.
The result of the voting is as follows:
Group A – African Group (13 seats) Number of ballot papers: 191 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 191 Abstentions: 0 Required majority of members: 96 Number of votes obtained: Ghana 183 Zambia 182 Senegal 181 South Africa 179 Mali 178 Mauritius 178 Morocco 178 Gabon 175 Djibouti 172 Cameroon 171 Tunisia 171 Nigeria 169
Algeria 168 Kenya 9 Tanzania 1 Madagascar 1 Egypt 1
Group B – Asian Group (13 seats) Number of ballot papers: 191 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 191 Abstentions: 1 Required majority of members: 96 Number of votes obtained: India 173 Indonesia 165 Bangladesh 160 Japan 158 Malaysia 158 Pakistan 149 Republic of Korea 148 China 146 Jordan 137 Philippines 136 Bahrain 134 Saudi Arabia 126 Sri Lanka 123 Thailand 120 Lebanon 112 Kyrgyzstan 88 Islamic Republic of Iran 58 Iraq 52 Qatar 1 Maldives 1
Group C – Eastern European Group (6 seats) Number of ballot papers: 191 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 191 Abstentions: 1 Required majority of members: 96 Number of votes obtained: Russian Federation 137 Poland 108 Czech Republic 105 Azerbaijan 95 Lithuania 92 Slovenia 91 Ukraine 91 Romania 89 Hungary 79 Armenia 70
Latvia 50 Georgia 35 Albania 31 Serbia and Montenegro 1
Group D – Latin American and Caribbean Group (8 seats) Number of ballot papers: 191 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 191 Abstentions: 1 Required majority of members: 96 Number of votes obtained: Brazil 165 Argentina 158 Mexico 154 Peru 145 Guatemala 142 Uruguay 141 Cuba 135 Ecuador 128 Nicaragua 119 Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela 101 Costa Rica 6 Honduras 3 Colombia 1 Group E – Western European and other Group (7 seats) Number of ballot papers: 191 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 191 Abstentions: 3 Required majority of members: 96 Number of votes obtained: Germany 154 France 150 United Kingdom 148 Switzerland 140 Netherlands 137 Finland 133 Canada 130 Portugal 122 Greece 117 Spain 1
Having obtained the required majority and the largest number of votes, the following countries were elected members of the Human Rights Council beginning on 19 June 2006:
From the African Group: Algeria, Cameroon, Djibouti, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Mauritius,
Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia and Zambia.
From the Asian Group: Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka.
From the Eastern European Group: Czech Republic, Poland and Russian Federation.
From the Latin American and Caribbean Group: Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.
From the Western European and other Group: Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
I congratulate the States that have been elected members of the Human Rights Council.
There remain three seats to be filled from the Eastern European Group.
The second round of balloting shall be restricted to the six States from among the Eastern European Group that were not elected but obtained the largest number of votes in the previous ballot, namely, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Ukraine. That is in accordance with rule 94 of the rules of procedure.
In accordance with the rules of procedure, we should continue with a series of restricted ballots. However, in view of the late hour, I propose that we postpone further balloting until 3 p.m. this afternoon.
Statement by the President The President: I would like to make an announcement regarding the Comprehensive Review and High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, to be held from 31 May to 2 June.
I am grateful to all those member States that have to date expressed their interest in round tables at that event. It would be very helpful if remaining member States could quickly let my Office know if they would like to take part in a round table so that planning for the event can proceed without further delay.
The meeting rose at 1.25 p.m.